why do some people by bmw's and not chevy's. they both do the exact same thing. i can't see a reason why someone would pay 40 grand for the same basic product that you can buy for 25 is a bad theory. it's called personal preference. that's why we're not on the ferrari forum.

 

ive got a backyard buddy lift in my garage, its great! very solid and very reliable. ours isnt bolted down either, we've had it for atleast 5 - 6 years and havent had any problems.

 

No one has mentioned the alternative to the BackyardBuddy, the former Autolifters (now All American Lifts) 4-post -- or discussed the fundamental difference between these and all the various Chinese-sources lifts.

The BB/AAL lifts have solid posts with sliders that completely envelope the post, while the chinese variants have a post that is open on one side, with a slider that runs inside the c-channel post.

I ended up deciding to pay a bit more for the AAL lift (which, BTW, was *much* less than the equivalent BB unit) because I believe the solid post/external slider design is inherently more secure -- less likely to allow complete lift collapse if a post is knocked sideways. I believe this was borne out in the recent thread about the 4-post that had one corner drop due to lack of maintenance (and subsequent cable pulley failure); while the tippy 3-series picture wasn't pretty, I believe it could have been worse, as the post/slider did not separate and allow the entire corner to drop to the floor and/or allow the post to be freed and driven sideways into something valuable. Not sure this would have been the case with a c-channel post, which might have deformed and allowed the slider to pop out of the post.

 

I'm in the market for a 4-poster as well and have been researching the various offerings. I have read many of the lift threads over the past several years here and the opinions vary as widely as the number of lifts available for purchase. I do have many hours of "under-lift" time with a buddy's AutoLifters (who are out of biz now but reincarnated as the All American brand) so I'm more comfortable with the sleeve-over-4-wall-post design as opposed to the C-channel type. It appears to be an inherently more stable design as mneblett alluded to above but I'd like to see an independent engineering analysis comparing the two designs under various load configurations.

Safety is overwhelmingly the primary issue when considering a home lift as far as I'm concerned and I'm definitely willing to pay a premium price for the margin of safety one design and/or brand offers over another, even if it's a 50% upcharge. A home lift is a luxury for most so I wouldn't consider one if I felt I had to compromise on safety to afford it. That being said, I'm not willing to pay a premium for a product with pricing based solely on one's fear of being crushed to death by supposedly sub-standard competitor's lifts. I'm also aware of my responsibility to maintain a lift to ensure it's safety - it is a machine, after all, so preventative maintenance is at least as important with a lift as with the car's brakes, for instance.

What to do, what to do? Well, I keep reading and have seen a couple of horror threads over the years depicting failed lifts. Neither has caused injury/death but it's a sobering thing to see and consider and has a very stifling effect on the buying process. But I continue to consider a home lift based on my experience with my buddy's AL lift and few of folks I've known. There is the supposedly independent testing organization http://www.autolift.org/ which tests and certifies lifts to certain standards so that's a good place to start researching. To be honest, features and pricing have taken a back seat to safety in my lift shopping when I realized the "gravity" of the situation once I started looking. It parallels the consideration of cheap, lower quality tires for a 150+ mph car.

One thing I have learned over the years on this forum - there is a lot of useful info here and plenty of experiences and opinions. But the age-old warning of caveat emptor applies more than ever when it comes to a purchase as important as a lift. I've been looking seriously for six months now and have narrowed it down to just a few choices, but it's still a struggle to make the final decision. All the lift distributors claim the best safety and utility features so it's up to the consumer to weed through all the hype.

My prized C5 will be resting on top of this thing during the week with my dd below it and I'll be spending lots of time under a ton and a half of automobile when working on it. I think lots of discussion and research is warranted - and worth it.

My buddy and his AutoLifters 4-poster

 

Nice synopsis - I'll be interested to see which way you end up going.. Please keep us informed

 

that would be where mine came from great people to deal with also

 

A buddy of mine has the BackyardBuddy and overall likes it very much. His only complaint, I believe, is when he disconnects the hydraulics there is a bit of leaking (even after disconnection).

 

I've got a BYB and would recommend it to others. I'm not about to say it's the best buy out there - as it's definitely one of the more expensive units on the market. As mentioned in the posts above - everyone has different tastes and criteria - you've got to decide what's important to you. I can say that I've been very happy with it though - and would do the same again.

 

well said my man, well said!!!!

 

...$2000 lift is not a bad price...

 

Recently had a 7000 lb lift (aresco.org) installed for $3,200 delivered and assembled in my garage. Love it!!

 

I was hoping to have a 4 post lift in my garage by now, however the cost of building the addition on my garage was a little more than I originally anticipated. It's still in the plan, but probably not until next year.

That being said, my MAIN concern and priority for my purchase will be SAFETY...both for my self and my car. If an additional $800-1000 provides me with a superior product, then it's money well spent.


Excellent post, Patches!

 

I agree with all of the material points of Patches' post; I have been kicking around the idea of a lift for several years now too, and have similarly vacillated. Insofar as the price, no question this is a product in which you do not wish to pinch pennies if it resultingly compromises quality or safety. My beef with BYB is how much their prices have increased in the past few years; I priced one of their lifts at MidAmerica's Funfest approx. 4 years ago. A lift that would have been around $3200 then is close to $5000 now. Despite all the economic factors that play into the cost of these things, that seems like an extraordinary jump in price to me.

 

One thing to keep in mind about many of the four post lifts is that it is difficult/impossible to do a lot of jobs. Dropping a motor out the bottom, dropping the rear end, dropping the tranny, gas tanks, etc. A lot of those are just not the same job as if you were doing it on a lift that lifts the frame.

This is again why I picked the Bendpak SP-7X mentioned in my earlier post. It has a lot of the great characteristics of the four post lifts (easy to drive on, drive off, can use it as a regular garage bay, VERY safe construction, etc.) and none of the downsides -- it lifts on the frame, you can do anything on it you can do on a 4 poster plus just about every other job you want.

The ONLY job I saw that I couldn't easily do with the SP-7X was drop the gas tanks, they sit far enough forward that they moving them down would be impeded by the lifting pads. I still think the job can be done but it may require lifting the vehicle off the center of the lift -- which I am sure can be done, but I'm not going to try.

 

Good points, diynoob. I would consider a lift like that if I didn't also have the primary requirement of needing the extra parking space. In fact, creating the extra parking space under the lift for my dd while the C5 sits on the lift above it is the primary reason I'm considering the 4-poster. If my only reason for buying a lift was working on the car, a two post lift would probably be the configuration at the top of my list since it leaves the entire underside of the car accessible. As it is, my reasons for wanting a lift, in order of importance, are 1) increase garage parking capacity and 2) car maintenance/repair.